Job Discussion Forums

[desert_traveller]

If you have spent at least 5 years in the KSA: have you ever noticed, after leaving the country on final exit or holiday, that even though you are not in the KSA anymore, the KSA is still in you in some or other way (apart from your bank account)?

[cmp45]

aw....since no one has posted yet, I will...slow day at work anyways...KSA is my home for now...so always look forward to returning to the familiar after the long summer break, although this year am teaching part of the summer...I embrace it all...the good , the bad and the ugly

[Pliny the Elder]

Yep, desert traveler, when I get back to terra firma esp on the high streets, I stare disapprovingly at women in revealing attire, interrupt my shopping 5 times per day to reflect on the nature of things, I hug my pillows when alseep � still chew on them, chuck my rubbish out of the window, cycle way too fast, only accept invites to embassy parties and I will Not eat chicken unless it comes along with rice. I talk to myself a lot. And if I ever visit London, I only really feel at home on the Edgeware road. I keep 2 cockroaches for pets. If I can think of anything else I�ll get back to you ..

[scot47]

Going to KSA certainly changes us. Not always for the worse !

[posh]

Smash my SUV that I can't afford into other vehicles and blame it on a deity - tell the police that as I'm British and as I'm in Britain they should let me off killing and/or maiming people.

Turn up for/go home from work whenever I want - get seriously angry with supervisor for pulling me up on this.

Do nothing at work other than complain about my salary being too low.

Hire a bunch of Asians and get them to redecorate my house, clear and landscape the garden - refuse to pay them as they have stolen a paint brush that I have hidden in a cupboard.

Go around shouting at people about random aspects of life that are forbidden - do exactly what I've been telling people that is forbidden.

There's more but I haven't been here for 5 years yet.

[johnslat]

Dear desert_traveller,

Oh yeah, it's still a part of me - and will be until the day I day (but not, I hope, after that )

Nineteen years is a pretty good hunk of my life; you don't spend that long anywhere without its affecting you. And, in my case, at least, I'd say that the changes were, as scot47 mentioned, mainly for the better.

1. I stopped drinking there. Oh, it took a while - about eighteen of my nineteen years - but I've been alcohol-less for just a little over ten years now. I don't think I would have quit - in fact, the odds are that I'd likely be dead by now - had I not gone to Saudi.

2, I learned patience. Before going, I had a bit of a short fuse. After my time there, I make Job look like a rash and impetuous guy.
I acquired what I consider the "good part" of the "inshallah mentality" - which, to my way of thinking is synonymous with The Serenity Prayer - for those non-alcoholics, it goes like this: "God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change (and there are PLENTY of those in Saudi), the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference".

3. I met my wife online there (we're coming up on our 8th anniversary).
She came across my Yahoo profile, saw I was about 8000 miles away, and figured, "Well, that should be pretty safe".
Turns out she miscalculated ) So, had I not been in Saudi, I'd probably be single AND dead now.)

4. I'm still in touch with a lot of people I met and became friends with over there - "Westerners" and Saudis. And they have enriched my life. Not to mention, of course, that I'm still here on Dave's.

5. Now I ALWAYS vote, and separation of church and state is a matter that is of paramount importance to me - having seen first-hand just how badly things are when that separation is non-existent.

Regards,
John

4.

[Pliny the Elder]

There is not a doubt to the sincerity of what John Slattery says. The place gives you pause for thought. There are not many jobs where you can send your clothes ahead of you to do a better job than you can mismanage on your own .. and find a Man prepared to admit it � Right on, John

[posh]

[johnslat]

Dear posh,

Yup - like many others, I got the Rubbermaid container, went to Safeway, picked up the ingredients, mixed them together, and set the result out on the balcony to "mature".

My stopping was an incremental process - first, I stopped making the stuff but would still drink at parties there and would get totally wasted on holidays.
Gradually, I began drinking less and less, and finally, it got to the point where I knew I could quit entirely.

Strangely enough, although I was expecting cessation to be difficult, that has turned out not to be the case. Don't know WHY - but maybe that long, slow decline in imbibing had something to do with it.

Whenever I want to scare myself, all I have to do is remember what a complete idiot I used to be. Now, I'm only a partial idiot.

Regards,
John